Hollerith's Tabulating Machine

The desk-like device with dials to the left is the electro-mechanical tabulator. On the tabulator's desk to the right is a press-like device which would bring an array of pins into contact with a punch card. A pin which went through a hole in the punch card would come into contact with a small cup of mercury underneith to complete a circuit that registered on one of the dials. To the right of the tabulator is the sorter. The same pin/cup array could also open one of the chutes into which the operator would deposit the punch card. And just visible on the right of the tabulator's desk is the manual "pantograph" card punch.